Crafting Knockout Scenes with Brooke Robinson

Scenes are the building blocks of fiction writing: plays, screenplays, novels, short stories, and even works of creative non-fiction, are the sum of these small units of drama, the way individual links come together to form a necklace. This 8-week program with Brooke Robinson will sharpen your writing to create truly powerful scenes.

Dates: 6:00-8:00pm (AEST) Tuesdays, 26 May – 7 July, 2026.
Delivery: Online
Fees: $1395 or $1300 for Varuna Alumni.
Applications close: 5:00pm (AEST), Tuesday 14 April 2026
Places: 8 participants will be selected (small group).

/ ABOUT THIS ONLINE COURSE /

When you think of your favourite novel, TV show or film, it’s usually an unforgettable scene that immediately comes to mind, a key moment of heightened drama.  

Scenes are the building blocks of fiction writing: plays, screenplays, novels, short stories, and even works of creative non-fiction, are the sum of these small units of drama, the way individual links come together to form a necklace. Thinking of your writing project as a series of scenes also makes it more manageable. A 90,000 word novel doesn’t need to be daunting, because if you can write a strong scene, then you can write absolutely anything.

This course focuses on scene writing for writers composing novels, memoirs, and creative non-fiction projects. In this ‘peak TV’ era where readers are increasingly influenced by what they watch on screen, we will steal dramatic writing techniques from film, television and theatre, to make your manuscript stand out.

Participants will gain an understanding of the mechanisms that make scenes work, and learn how to structure their own stories. You’ll learn tricks and tools for enhancing scenes and how this is an effective way of re-redrafting your own work. Together we’ll analyse some of the very best scenes and dramatic moments in film, TV, plays and novels, and we’ll do weekly writing exercises to put what we learn into practice.

This is a small group program for 8 participants over 8 weeks. Each writer will also have a 40-minute one-on-one session with Brooke to discuss their work in progress.